50 (50) Berserk

A silent period passed and Lysine fidgeted nervously. Kraton and herself could hardly take on one of the Golems, but it sounded like the Appraiser had successfully beaten both.

As she stared towards the door, she held one of her daggers in her left hand, and the second dagger hung around her waist.

Her right hand gripped a silvery object with swirly contours. If Kraton were awake, he would immediately identify it as his Direction Bomb.

The doors swung open and revealed the two Appraisers. Upon entering the room, both parties stared at each other blankly.

'There's two of them?'

'Why is one sleeping? And why is she holding something over him?'

These were their thoughts respectively.

"Yaah!" Lysine screamed loudly, frightening the two humans with the sudden scream. They became even more bewildered when Lysine ran away from them, 'Isn't she a melee Monster?'

Lysine had indeed retreated backwards and hid quite far away, however at the same time she screamed, she also pulled the pin of the Direction Bomb.

The strong repulse, tremendous noise and flaming projectile was fired directly onto Kraton face.

She had specifically chosen the lowest grade Bomb, but the force of the bomb at close-range was still very powerful.

The blast roasted Kraton's face like a flamethrower and the accompanying noise made him jump. Kraton clutched his ears and looked up. His bloodshot eyes glared around him and settled on the two humans.

The Templar and his apprentice felt chills running down their spine, they were caught red-handed at something they didn't even do!

The two humans scattered as Kraton chucked a barrage at items towards them. Among these items were the grenades and Direction Bombs, once one exploded, it caused a chain reaction.

No matter how far they could have run, the massive explosion would have knocked them flying.

"Raaargh!"

Kraton roared in anger when the two managed to come out relatively unscathed.

As if the Roar was a cue, large crystals started to jut out of the ground from where Kraton stood. It was like a wave of spikes had appeared, the more distance from Kraton, the larger the crystals were.

Soon, the whole ground in front of Kraton was covered in Crystal spikes.

The elderly Templar hurriedly activated Divine Protection, but his apprentice was too far away from him. As such, the apprentice was knocked flying by an enormous crystal spike.

The Templar stared in horror at his shield, two centimetres of the tip of the spike had pierced through the shield. Cracks started to spread wildly and soon the shield shattered like glass.

The apprentice groaned as he pulled himself out from the wall. He quickly drank two vials, one was blue like the one the Templar took before entering, and the other was red.

Soon, his injuries started to recover at an accelerated rate and his eyes became more focused. His senses seemed to have increased by two-fold as he easily deflected the random debris that flew towards him.

Kraton sensed that the older guy was more powerful, and in his Berserk state, he charged headfirst towards him, club in hand and ready to strike.

The Templar panicked a little, almost forgetting that they were hired to appraise the Dungeon, not just to beat it.

He bit back his tounge before he cast Holy Sword, and instead activated an equipment skill. The Templar seemed to vanish as he rushed to the side, activating both his boots and shield.

He turned towards his apprentice, about to scorn him for not hurrying up, but he found that he was already occupied. Lysine was dashing down onto the younger man, her speed and aerial capabilities made it hard for him to attack, forcing him to remain defensive.

The Templar took his eyes of his apprentice and tried to locate Kraton's massive figure again but.. "Impossible." Kraton had disappeared without a trace, without a sound.

He scanned the surroundings again, and then tried using an advanced tracking skill, but it was only when it was too late that his skill picked up the abnormal shadow looming over him.

By reflex, the old man shrunk into a defensive position and covered his back with his shield. A heavy palm descended onto his back and he was sent sprawling in a miserable state.

Getting back up, he coughed out some blood and saw that Kraton was rushing towards him again. Kraton was eerily silent, but the Templar was sure that it wasn't an illusion as the heavy footsteps quite clearly left an imprint within the ground.

Two colourful vines were trailing just behind Kraton; one to the left, and one to the right of him.

The Templar prepared himself, casting multiple defensive skills onto himself in order to be able to gauge Kraton's physical attack, as well as the vine's attack power.

There were so many layers of protection stacked on top of the Templar that it was pretty hard to see his figure through the translucent shields.

Kraton's fist started to glint and become rigid, signs that his Harden skill was in effect. His fist struck the barriers around the Templar like an almighty warhammer, and the two vines pierced into the shield like spears.

The impact of Kraton's attack tore through the air, a deafening sound resounded causing the apprentice to lose focus and lower his sword.

Lysine took this chance to dash down swiftly, her wings propelled her down like a shooting star. With her two curved blades slashing across, she aimed for the man's neck.

"Cough", bright red blood spurted from one side of the man's neck, he had dodged backwards enough to avoid being decapitated and also managed to knock one of Lysine's daggers away.

The man counter-attacked with a few slashes with his sword, with each slash he gained back a bit of ground but he still couldn't hit Lysine.

The Templar had skidded right back to a wall, out of the ten layers of protection he had put up, he was only left with two more, this inculded his shield equipment.

The two vines had pierced through and directly shattered three or four layers, whilst Kraton's fist had fractured the rest. Kraton had also somehow attacked with his club, this destroyed the already damaged shields of protection.

The elderly man felt something dripping down his forehead, and felt shocked when he wiped it away.

"Blood..." He had never in his right mind, expected for a Boss, more than ten levels below him, to have injured him at all.

<Status: Bleeding has been inflicted.>

A small notification popped up in the Templar's system, informing him about the status effect. He could no longer remain on the defensive as the longer he took, the more health he would lose due to the Bleeding effect.

"Darby! Cover me." The Templar commanded his apprentice when he reached a far enough distance from Kraton. Silver particles theen started to surround the elderly man again as he charged up his Holy Sword spell.

Darby, the apprentice, wasn't faring that well, he had been stabbed two more times when his defense lacked during his attacks. He felt extremely relieved when he saw his master charging his spell as it would soon be over.

What's more, was that the two of them would technically be the first clear in a long time. Being a youthful man made him anticipate the glory in all its finest.

Darby quickly escaped from Lysine's attacks and intercepted Kraton before he could attack the old man again.

However, his attempt was rather futile. As soon as he came into range, Kraton swung his club like a baseball bat. At the same time, Lysine flung one of her daggers straight into his exposed back.

The Templar faltered when he heard the notification of his apprentice's death. A Guardian had natural defensive capabilities, even if those attacks had landed, it wouldn't have been an instant death!

Unbeknowst to the Templar, Kraton had been extremely lucky during this battle, having critted his attack twice.

The first time was against the Templar's numerous shields, his fist would only have fractured two layers at most otherwise. The second time was just now, his Berserk state had already amplified his damage, along with the crit multiplier and Lysine's attack, the Guardian stood no chance at surviving.

"Holy Sword!" The skill was finally cast and a ray of light descended into the room. The Templar had taken additional time in charging his spell in order to maximise its strength and size.

The ground appeared to move as the light reflected off of it.

Wait.. that's not right.

The Templar peered at the floor again - it really was moving! If one could inspect the ground properly, they would find millions of crystaline particles moving towards the two Bosses as if they were attracted by a magnetic pull.

In an instant before the holy sword descended, a massive, colourful umbrella materialised. The moving particles on the ground stacked layer after layer on this wall, aking it thicker and thicker.

*Boom*

A shockwave erupted, displacing all the debris on the ground. The crystal umbrella caved in, under the tremendous power of the spell.

As the light vanished and the dust cleared away, the two Bosses stood in a very large crater. The crystal umbrella had disappeared along with the light as if it was never there.

The frightening attack woke Kraton up from his Berserk state and he stood in a stupor, his arms covering his head.

"HAHAHA" Kraton's monstrous laugh rang in the Templar's ears. Although the two Bosses had suffered some damage, it wasn't too severe.

Adrenaline pumped through Kraton's veins as fear pumped through the Templar's. Kraton stormed towards the frozen Templar, his footsteps thundering on the ground.

The old man heard the footsteps and refocused on the fight. He raised his shield and broadsword and charged towards Kraton. The Templar looked like a glorious knight that was depicted in many children's stories; fearlessly charging at the monster with rays of light shining off his armour.

Similarly to the stories, the Templar started to glow and shine. His gold and silver armour radiated an astonishing amount of energy as the two collided.

The Templar smiled.

"Kamikaze!"

When the Templar respawned back in the town, he stared dumbly at the notification.

Using the skill 'Kamikaze' would send out a powerful explosion of pure energy. The skill would prioritise killing everyone else before killing the user. However, the user would still recieve the death 'reward': losing a level, even if it was an assigned friendly duel.

The amount of experience lost could still be affected by certain items and artifacts though.

That left the question: how did they fail? Even if there was a third Boss, the Holy Sword would have done AoE damage, and Kamikaze would have finished anyone off.

There were some cases where Kamikaze did not kill the opponent first, this was either due to what the human scientists called an anomaly.

Failing the dungeon didn't impact the elderly Templar that much as he got what they were hired for. The Apprentice on the other hand, felt like all his effort was in vain. Not only did he not get the first clear for the dungeon in a long time, he had also died unexpectedly!

The Templar dragged Darby to the town hall and submitted his detailed report.

...

When the two Bosses respawned, the first thing they saw was Barren who was spinning multiple crystal balls around his hand, like Baoding balls[1].

Their second thing to notice was they jump in experience and level. Kraton had jumped by two levels; he was now level 21. Whereas Lysine nearly rose by three levels as she was now nearing level 20.

Lysine's rate of growth was outstanding, even more reason to get a high-grade foundation tablet so they could find out what her Innate Talent was.

Kraton also decided to change the contract slightly so they levelled up at the same rate once she reached his level. This would prevent one of them from completely overpowering the other later on.

Now that their Dungeon Rating had increased yet again, it would undoubtedly garner even more attention from the human population.

There were two-thirds of the year left for Kraton to meet Hato's requirement to become an Intermediate Boss within two years.

If the two of them managed to claim the bonus experience of party killing, then maybe both of them could become level 30 in eight months, but they would definitely need to work for it.

✧✧✧✧✧

~Somewhere far away - very far away - in a large, underground, palace-like structure made of a dark, mysterious stone that looked like the galaxies in space, two, large purple eyes opened up in the darkness.

Random formless creatures scurried away, and any being within 1000 km, whether Elven, Demon, Human or Beast, or any other race, felt a cold premonition running down their spine.

This feeling only lasted for half of a second, causing everyone who felt it to pass it off as nothing but air.

"All.. My children... are... finally waking..."

A deep voice, brimming with power echoed from the confines of the shadows. The large purple eyes slowly closed again as the creature returned to its slumber.

~~~

[1] Baoding Balls are small metal balls which are said to help, aid or recover muscle strength in the hands. Two balls are often used at once, and are meant to be rotated in one hand.

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